TIRANA, November 3 – Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama took the opportunity of the Berlin Process Summit held in Berlin on Thursday to level accusations against the British Home Secretary, Suella Braveman, telling British diplomats to go to Germany to learn and fix their political problems.
Rama made that comment in response to a harsh stance taken by Britain against Albanian clandestine emigrants, who, according to British senior officials, have ‘invaded’ the UK.
According to official reports, more than 12,000 Albanians have landed in Britain during this year and 10,000 of them are males. They are seen as a contingent of people who could get involved in illegal traffics in Britain.
“I didn’t hear any German politician speaking and saying that Albanians are criminals and bring criminals, and I saw a government quite interested in dealing with the issue of emigration for Albanians and moving in a concrete way by aligning Albania in the countries of origin of sure, by strengthening the system of applications, and practically putting an end to that tumult of that moment in the most respectable manner,” said Rama, who did not spare his irony saying that British representatives should go to Germany and quickly learn and fix their own problems.
According to Rama, Albanian citizens who arrived in France had been completely legal. “If there is a problem in the channel between France and the UK let them solve it. We are ready to cooperate, but we will accept this kind of rhetoric.”
In the meantime he praised Albanians living in Britain, saying that they are a fully integrated, excellent community. “It’s not a million, it’s 140,000. 70% of them left Greece and Italy. There are 1200 business leaders who are Albanians, there are academics. When it comes to criminals the numbers speak for less than 1%. Talking about gangsters doesn’t sound very British, but like a scream in a madhouse,” said Rama.
Rama also touched upon the issue of visa liberalization for Kosovo citizens, saying it sounds a little strange or alienating for Kosovo that while they made an agreement on identity cards to move freely in the WB region they cannot move in the EU. /Argumentum.al
